There's always a big question of if you should have an Elf on the Shelf in your classroom or not...and I always say yes!! It such a magical time of the year and I love being apart of it! Now I completely understand if you are unable to because of the different backgrounds and traditions of your students! There are other options like a Moose on the Loose! It's the same concept but with a stuffed moose and it has nothing to do with Christmas! I put together all my the different shenanigans that have happened in my classroom over the last several years to help you make the most of your elf!

Now there are lots of "fancy" ways to do this but I prefer the easy!

I've wrapped it it bulletin board paper and asked my principal to deliver to our classroom!

But I've also had it just show up in our classroom one morning with a letter from Santa.

Now let's chat a minute...I usually plan out some of my bigger elf shenanigans.

Which helps me figure out when I need to buy special items.

But most of the time, I just find ways to move the elf around the room.

All this took was a cheap bag of Dollar Tree bows!

I put one on every student's desk and the rest went around the room.

This one is alway fun! I place the Hershey Kisses in the freezer the night before.

Students usually come in to find the elf when they first arrive, but this day, the elf is nowhere to be found! While the students are at special area, our elf arrives with a letter from Santa explaining that our elf was needed for a special mission and Santa is so sorry he didn't get back in time so he sent a treat! The kiddos freak out when they realize the candy is COLD!

This one is my personal favorite!! I buy the stick on mustaches (I always find mine at Target during Halloween) This always cracks me up how funny kids look with mustaches on!

This is usually what happens when I forget to move the elf! #realtalk

Sometimes I print them out and put them around the room.

Sometimes I change the background of our computers.

And sometimes, I just show the kids on my ipad! #morerealtalk

I usually give things I would give even if I wasn't doing an elf!

Pencils...candy canes...needed school supplies

This is another fun one! Instead of Santa's naughty or nice list, our elf leaves one. The students go nuts when they realize I'm on on the naughty side!!

(My elf handwriting is my left hand...not bad, right?!)

There have been years, where we've had an incident of someone touching our elf. It's usually a pretty sad day, especially if it was an accident! But Santa always comes through for us and lets us know that our elf just needs rest and a quiet classroom to recover!

I was extremely fortunate to work with an amazing team who all had elves too! We got together after school one day and as you can see...our elves had a grand time! We took the pictures and made it our screensavers for our Smartboard. We timed it so that everyone's would pop up at the same time! Then of course, when we heard the other classes going crazy...we knew our elves were BFFs!!

Raise your hand if you've tried any and every classroom management system you've ever seen!
Self confession: my hand is raised too! Once, I discovered Class Dojo...everything changed for me! I love everything about it!!! And I'm sharing how I use it over on my collaborative blog, All About 3rd Grade!

Are you setting up your classroom yet?
I just went back this week to start...and even after 13 years, it still can be overwhelming!
But I've learned a few tips and tricks over the years that have helped this year be the quickest way to set up! It literally took me two hours!